A facility retrieval device installed in a navigation apparatus or the like, for example, is conventionally known. When a user inputs the name of a desired facility into the facility retrieval device, a database of facility information stored in a map information storage device is retrieved (this retrieval operation will be referred to hereafter as a “facility name retrieval operation”).
When the name of the facility that the user wishes to find in the facility name retrieval operation is a unique name such that only one or a few facilities having the name exist in an entire country, the number of items displayed on a list of retrieval results is small, and therefore the user can select the desired facility from the retrieval result list easily. However, when the name of the facility that the user wishes to find belongs to a large number of identically named facilities over the entire country, for example when the facility is a chain store such as a fast food store or a convenience store, a large number of facilities having the identical name are retrieved over the entire country (an entire region of a map information database recording range) if the name alone is input, and as a result, identically named facilities are displayed over a plurality of pages on the retrieval result list, making it difficult for the user to find the desired facility.
Further, when retrieving a different facility that has the identical name as a large number of identically named facilities, for example a bank or the like having the identical name as a chain store, the facility that the user wishes to find becomes buried in the retrieval result list among the large number of chain stores, and therefore, similarly to the case described above, the user cannot easily find the desired facility.
In order to solve these problems, a retrieval range is narrowed at the start of the facility name retrieval operation or during the retrieval operation with the aim of reducing the number of items displayed on the retrieval result list at the start of the facility name retrieval operation or during the retrieval operation. This narrowing operation is performed during the facility name retrieval process by having the user input a location of the facility.
As a technique relating to facility retrieval, Patent Document 1 discloses a navigation apparatus capable of retrieving facilities of an identical business type to a facility displayed on a map. This navigation apparatus includes: reading means for reading map information and facility information from an HDD; displaying means for displaying information corresponding to the read map information and facility information on a display device; specifying means for specifying corresponding facility information when displayed predetermined information is indicated; extracting means for extracting information indicating a business type from the facility information specified by the specifying means; retrieving means for retrieving another facility belonging to the same business type by referring to the extracted information indicating the business type; and presenting means for presenting another facility obtained through retrieval.